The Neighbourhood Nursery Initiative – Policy into Practice?

1. The Neighbourhood Nursery Initiative – Policy into Practice? Eddie McKinnon, Principal Researcher Pen Green Research, Development and Training Base EECERA Conference Reykjavik 2006

2. SOCIAL POLICY BACKGROUND TO THE NEIGHBOURHOOD NURSERY INITIATIVE • Labour government’s aim of halving child poverty by 2010 and eradicating it by 2020 • Range of policy initiatives • Early Excellence Centres • Sure Start Local Programmes • Extended Schools • Neighbourhood Nurseries • Children’s Centres

3. PERNICIOUS UNEMPLOYMENT AND ITS EFFECTS • Key causes of child poverty identified as unemployment and low-paid/part-time work • Poverty and disadvantage rooted in the same communities over long periods of time • Government’s “dual aims” to “tackle worklessness and make work pay” (DWP, 2006)

4. THE NEIGHBOURHOOD NURSERIES INITIATIVE • Neighbourhood Nurseries, located in the most disadvantaged communities, would; • Provide 45,000 new high quality childcare places • Increase opportunities for parents to get jobs, return to work or take up training or adult education • Costs of NNI places offset by up to 70% by Working Families Tax Credit (now Working Tax Credit) • 2001-2005 141 Local Authorities granted £128m capital funding and £240m revenue funding

5. THE BABY AND TODDLER NEST AT PEN GREEN • Baby and Toddler Nest opened at Pen Gren in July 2004 • 12 full-time equivalent places • Places prioritised for families in the catchment area • Catchment area includes areas of deep deprivation (4 Super Output Areas in the top 10% most disadvantaged in the UK) • Remaining places open to applications from families outside the catchment area

6. GATHERING THE RESEARCH EVIDENCE • Staff in the Baby and Toddler Nest and the researcher co-constructed the research • 12 parents interviewed who were structured to represent, • Current-, Past- and Non-Users • Reason for using the Baby and Toddler Nest • Research staff used data on families’ use of the Baby and Toddler Nest to create a socio-spatial map showing reasons for usage and status of attendance • The researcher interviewed a senior member of staff in the Baby and Toddler Nest and had access to documentation

7. FINDINGS FROM THE INTERVIEWS • Of 12 parents interviewed; • 5 returned to own jobs after maternity leave • 2 to new jobs after maternity leave • 2 intending to seek work • 2 staying at home with children • 1 going into higher education • Juggling of work and family life, ‘tandem’ parenting • Managing ‘coordination points’ in the day (Skinner, 2003) • ‘Time-off’ from child – respite or choice • 4 Non Users raised issues about sessional care, costs and lower age limit of 12 months

8. MEETING THE NEEDS OF THE MOST VULNERABLE FAMILIES • Must meet needs of “disadvantaged families at greatest risk of social exclusion” Beverley Hughes (2006) • Two-thirds of Children’s Centres not targeting and tracking excluded groups (NAO, 2006) • Toolkit for Reaching Priority and Excluded Families guidance on data sources and checklists for settings (TfC, 2007)

9. PRIORITIES, SUSTAINABILITY AND DATA • How to inform the most vulnerable families in the catchment area about the Baby and Toddler Nest, engage with them and give them places? • How long to keep places ‘in reserve’ for the most vulnerable families when demand outstrips supply and empty places cost money? • Catchment area has ‘pockets’ of affluence and areas of poverty side-by-side (Sylva et al, 2007) • Complication of provision based on post-coded multiple deprivation data • Use Socio-Spatial Mapping data to establish better understanding of family needs • Not ‘hard to reach’ but ‘difficult to access’